Lucknow, April 25: In his lone campaign appearance in Uttar Pradesh so far, Atal Bihari Vajpayee today asked his party to unite if it wanted a Pokhran and repeated that he would not fight an election again.

“In Uttar Pradesh, poll results are expected on May 11, I am being told. Few today perhaps remember what happened on May 11. If the party workers want positive results on May 11, they should work hard and stand united,” he said.

India had conducted five nuclear tests at Pokhran in Rajasthan on May 11 and May 13, 1998, when Vajpayee was Prime Minister. After that, India declared a moratorium on testing.

The Pokhran tests were a huge boost for the image of Vajpayee and his party, the BJP.

“Let there be a May 11 in favour of the party,” he said, citing the Punjab and Uttarakhand poll victories to push for unity.

Vajpayee, who had earlier cancelled his proposed rally at Kanpur on March 26, addressed a meeting in Lucknow where his protégé Lalji Tandon is contesting.

“A rumour was being spread… that I was not attending rallies because I have political differences with Kalyan Singh,” he said. “Kalyan Singh is my old colleague. I have no differences with him.”

Turning to Kalyan, sitting next to him on the dais, Vajpayee added that he had his “blessings”.

“I wanted to come here for a long time but I was not allowed to,” the octogenarian leader joked. “They told me to stay in my place.”

Vajpayee looked unwell as he addressed the crowd sitting on a chair and was getting election dates mixed up. Party president Rajnath Singh could be heard prompting him on dates and names.

But the former Prime Minister said he would come to Lucknow, his Lok Sabha seat, on April 28 to vote and called upon the voters to turn out in large numbers. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, only 40 per cent of Lucknow’s voters cast their ballot.

“I am willing to work for the improvement of Lucknow. Whenever I come to Lucknow, I am thrilled. This does not mean that I will contest elections again. I won’t,” he said.